"No more interference": The response of Chinese intellectuals to United States China policy, 1945-1950.

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the articulated views and behavior of an important segment of Chinese population-- politically conscious intellectuals--toward the United States over the period of 1945-1950. During this period, warm Chinese feelings toward America as demonstrated during World War II when the United States was China's critical ally gradually switched to suspicion and resentment. Chapter 1 reviews Chinese intellectuals' views of the United States as developed during the first half of the twentieth century, and argues that the United States fluctuated, in the eyes of many urban educated elite, between inspiration and threat. Chapter 2 discusses the emergence of critical Chinese attitudes toward the United States government soon after WWII, as politically articulate Chinese began to question the role the American government played in China's internal political disputes. Chapter 3 examines the Shen Chong incident, and contends that ardent student demands for the immediate departure of American troops from China and for an end to American involvement in Chinese politics disturbed the American observers, discredited the Chinese Nationalist Party and benefitted the Communist cause. Chapter 4 focuses on the strong Chinese reaction toward the "reversed" American occupation policy in Japan in 1948, and concludes that the U. S. government had lost the heart and support of many Chinese intellectuals before the Communist takeover. Chapter 5 treats the CCP's full exploitation of Chinese intellectuals' various grievances against the United States government in mobilizing the large-scale Resist America, Aid Korea campaign. Vehement intellectual insistence that the United States government refrain from interfering in China's political struggles during the period in question developed in the broader political and social context of Chinese patriotic passion for national identity and unity. Chinese obsession with national self-determination persists down to the present day. This study hopes to shed light on a specific political phenomenon and its relevance to Chinese political values and the dynamics of Sino-American relations.